To make a world safe for reform: How revolutionary is Cuba's foreign policy?

• In Event: Innovations in foreign policy analysis

Abstract

This paper examines how Cuba's domestic processes of economic reform and political liberalization impact the projection of Cuba's foreign policy. The research studies this problem focusing on the structure, actors, priorities and goals of Cuban foreign policy and how these dimensions have responded to changes in ideology, political discourse and leadership inside Cuba after the VI congress of the Cuban Communist Party and the retirement and later death of Fidel Castro. The paper engages critically with the question "When did/will the revolution end?" from a foreign policy study perspective and in a dialogue with classics of the topic of revolution in International relations theory literature such as David Armstrong, Fred Halliday, Stephen Walt and others. The paper is part of a wider research on the role of asymmetry and agency of small actors in international relations.

Author

• Arturo Lopez-Levy, Gustavus Adolphus College